Trio of Mini Pound Cakes Reviews

Gale Gand

Epicurious
December 2006

1.5/4

reviews (6)

0%

make it again

Photo by Deborah Ory; food styling: Elizabeth Duffy

These tiny cakes make terrific gifts, packaged in sets of three  one of each flavor. The basic vanilla batter is also wonderful for other variations  try orange rind and white chocolate-chip, raisin-walnut, or "the kitchen sink" (that's whatever you need to get rid of in your pantry). I also like to keep some of these loaves in my freezer for impromptu breakfast parties. Just move them to the refrigerator before bed, and they'll be thawed by morning.

Leave a Review

Reviews

users rating1.5/4

I decided not to try this after reading the reviews. I like the low fat banana bread recipe on this site with buttermilk. Just add a handful or two of chocolate chips and it is indulgent. Healthier too. Good Luck.

I must admit, this recipe is less than par. The amount of ingredients, I used for this recipe, is astonishing seeing as though the loafs of bread went straight to the garbage can. I'm so glad I decided to try one before I sent them off as gifts. The embarrassment of giving these grease filled bricks to my friends and family would have made my Christmas terrible.
Don't bake these. Ever.

I'd like to take away the one fork - this isn't even "okay." It's wrong.
Making mini-loaves is a great gift idea and one I do almost every year. I would NOT recommend using this recipe.
I made lemon blueberry, maple walnut, orange cranberry, and banana ginger breads from recipes I found elsewhere online. The basic batter: 1/3 c melted butter, 1 c sugar, 2 eggs, 1 t baking powder, 1 t salt, 1/2 c milk, 1 1/2 c flour. Add 1/2 c fruit, 3 T juice, 1/2 c nuts. Add 2 T lemon or orange zest to the lemon and orange breads.
Mix the dry ingredients. Mix the wet ingredients (incl. sugar) in a separate bowl. Fold dry into wet (don't over mix). Stir in fruit and nuts. Bake until toothpick comes out dry - it will vary but start with 20 minutes.
Use the 1 3/4 c mini loaf pans - where do you find 4 oz. mini loaf pans anyway? That's the size of a muffin. This recipe makes three loaves.

I agree with other reviewers that there seemed to be too much butter and the quantity was off. Also, mine didn't rise at all (did I over-beat the batter?) and the mini choc chips sank to the bottom of the stiff little cakes.

I am infuriated! This recipe is completely missized. Maybe it makes 9 muffins but nothing close to a mini/tea bread. This close to the holiday I was hoping I could trust Epicurious; thankfully I have a can of solo poppy seed filling and I know it makes a large bundt cake; I can probably get at least 3 more breads out of that. I'm sorry for being so blunt but I got up at 4:30 a.m. to make these and I feel like I completely wasted my time.

I found the proportions and sizing somewhat weird. A four ounce mini-loaf pan is about the same size as a Texas size muffin tin, and the baking time for this recipe is much longer than I would use for such muffins. Also, the amount of butter, even for pound cake, is quite large; would you expect almost 2T of butter in one large muffin? I would rather make one loaf and cut slices; to serve more than 1 or 2 guests would require almost all the pound cakes in the recipe anyway. No big deal, even with the variety of mix-ins.